5 replies to this topic

[HanShotFirst]

My laptop's hard drive died on me so I will be buying a new one, hopefully from Sam's tomorrow. I've always had Microsoft Office come preloaded on my previous laptops so this new 365 stuff is confusing me.

If I purchase a 365 product do I have to renew yearly to keep using Word at all or is it mine forever, just not the most current updated version? I only need to create, edit, share and store documents so Word is really the only thing needed. Is it possible to just purchase Word only? So far I can't see that it is. All of my saved documents were created with Word so don't I need to stick with same platform to continue accessing them? They are routinely modified/updated.

[bluebear]

Office 365 is a subscription, so you do pay every year, and it's always the most recent version. They have different "plans" depending how many devices you need to install it on. 1 computer license is $69/yr. I think I've seen it in BF ads though. It's also nice, because you can log into your O365 account from any computer and use Word (or whatever program) online.
It is possible to buy Office plain, current version is Office 2016. That is what like you're used to. Buy it once and then use it forever. It's $149 in the MS Store.
Supposedly you can open word files with google docs, but I've never tried, I'm not very Googly. I would definitely test that first.

[laddhorn]

If you want to buy office, talk to someone you know who is in school.  College and many high schools can get you a steep discount on office.  When I was in college, I was able to pick up Office home and student ($150) for $50.  They began offering 365 for free to all their students before I left.  It went with your school email, so I opted for the "forever" purchase price of $50.

 

A school email (ending in .edu) can net you many discounts via Microsoft.  You should check it out!

[riven3d]

I buy my Office from Amazon I got it in Jan this year for about $119 I am able to install it on 5 PC's

 

most of the ads that have it on sale you will notice the sale price will have a note that says PC or Tablet purchase requied

[tinkrbel]

Depending on your workplace, they may have employee discount store. We usually have for $9.99

[HanShotFirst]

Thanks for all the info! Still researching what I should do but will definitely look into the Google docs thing. My sister is actually taking a graduate level course so if she has a .edu email I'll look at that too. Education discount never occurred to me.